C. O. Dunbar

Carl Owen Dunbar (January 1, 1891 – April 7, 1979) was an American paleontologist who specialized in invertebrate fossils. He was a Professor of Geology at Yale University from 1920 until 1959. He was also Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University from 1942 until 1959. As editor of a textbook series on historical geology from the 1920s through the 1950s, his work was published and sold in over 1 million books.

Dunbar was born 1 January 1891 in Hallowell, Cherokee County, Kansas. He was raised on his grandfather, Warder Dunbar’s ranch by his parents David Dunbar (1863–1941) and mother Emma Thomas Dunbar (née McNeil).

Dunbar enrolled at the University of Kansas in 1909 and finished his doctorate at Yale University in 1917. His dissertation was entitled, “The Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Devonian of Western Tennessee.” His doctoral advisor was Yale paleontologist, Charles Schuchert.

Between 1918 and 1920, Dunbar taught geology at the University of Minnesota. In 1920, when Charles Schuchert retired from his professorship at Yale University, he recommended Dunbar as his replacement. Dunbar taught at Yale University from 1920 to 1959.

Dunbar was a worldwide expert on the evolution of fusulines during the Pennyslvannian and Permian periods of the late Paleozoic age. In 1927, his work, published with G. E. Condra, is considered the first definitive study on fusulinids and Foraminifera. Dunbar published a series of textbooks at Yale University on historical geology. These books "dominated the field through the 1920s and 1930s and made a major contribution to professional education in earth science." At the end of his career, Dunbar’s textbooks had sold close to a million copies.

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